Monday, July 30, 2012

I'm in London for an event you might have heard about somewhere on the news....Because I plan to experience as much of the Games as I can, I've scheduled some posts to keep this little blog of mine going while I'm gone (and to help me catch up with my never ending backlog of photos taken on other trips.) If you want to keep up with me in real time, and see a few of my London photos, catch me on Instagram @jamieshaw_lj.

I love looking at street photography - but I'm not much of a street photographer - it makes me feel self conscious to be out on the street with a camera taking pictures of strangers. Does anyone else struggle street photography for that reason? I find I worry about it less when I leave the dslr home and use a smaller camera.

True story - these two photos are the same street. The top one was taken on Saturday the bottom on Sunday. This is a town that REALLY does shut down on Sunday.

When I typed the title of this post I immediately started singing Band of Horses' Laredo - and couldn't figure out why until I remembered a Johnny Cash song: Streets of Laredo. I think it is safe to say Laredo and Lausanne have very little in common, but still, my mind and music can bring them together.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I'm in London for an event you might have heard about somewhere on the news....Because I plan to experience as much of the Games as I can, I've scheduled some posts to keep this little blog of mine going while I'm gone (and to help me catch up with my never ending backlog of photos taken on other trips.) If you want to keep up with me in real time, and see a few of my London photos, catch me on Instagram @jamieshaw_lj.
One of my favorite parts of travel is exploring old buildings and churches. Maybe it is because I spent most of my life in the Western US, where old means mid- to late 1800s, but I love experiencing historical buildings. The detail and craftsman ship blows me away, especially when I stop and think about the tools that were available when the buildings were crafted. The cathedral in Lausanne was no different. I've visited several times and each time I go, I find something new to marvel at - the building is simply stunning. Here are a few photos from my trip there last fall.

The inside of a cathedral seems to be a fitting place for a listen to the new Bon Iver: Beth/Rest.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Last October I was in Lausanne and spent a quiet Saturday at the Cathedral. I learned that similar to Saturday's in the US, if you get someplace before noon, the odds of it being quiet are high. I spent a couple of hours there and in the surrounding area where I went a little photo crazy. Here are some of my photos of the outside of the church.

Sharon Van Etten's We Are Fine seems like a good pick for a post about a beautiful church visited on a quiet Saturday.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

I think one of the reasons I'm a morning person is because I love to watch the sunrise so much. Yes, sunsets are stunning, but for me, nothing beats dawn. The sun just peaking over the mountains, the day still full of possibilities.

Do you have a favorite time of day?

One of my top 10 favorite songs (something I don't say lightly) is the Allison Moorer cover of Dolly Parton's Light of a Clear Blue Morning. I could start ever morning with this song and I think the day would be a little bit better because of it.
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Monday, July 16, 2012

My weekend was full of these two, my very favorite little ones. Friday afternoon we played together at their house for a few hours. I pulled out my iPad to show them a Cookie Monster parody I thought would make them giggle, which it did. Miss M then pulled out her mom's Kindle Fire and play Carly Rae Jepson's Call Me Maybe (aka Miss M's most recent favorite song). She must have hit repeat at least 20 times, with only a short pause for Tiny T to pull out his mom's iTouch and show us his favorite song Rascal Flatts' Life is a Highway, or as he calls it Car's. As a side note - I'm amazed at the ability of kids today to navigate things like Kindle Fires and iTouches. They can't read, but they can find their favorite songs and play them with no help from me.

Once we got tired of dancing, we loaded the car and headed to Jungle Jim's, a local indoor amusement park. It was non-stop fun for several hours. T hit every ride there, even braved the fast spinning one - once I agreed to ride with him (making me slightly queasy!) They both tried the bumper cars for the first time and LOVED it - Maggie was the best driver of the two, and I had to pull T off to give someone else a turn after his second ride. We finally got to my house just after bedtime a little hyper from the rootbeer I let them have. I finally coaxed them into their PJs and settled them with some milk. After prayers and a story (Dr Suess' Oh The Places You'll Go, the only kids book I own) we talked to their mom and dad on Facetime. Two minutes after I turned off the light they were out!

The next morning we made cinnamon rolls and while they cooked, we pulled out the bubble guns and filled the neighborhood with bubbles. We eventually ate breakfast, played a game of Candy Land, which I thankfully managed to lose, played both Dora and Strawberry Shortcake Match Games and a little Kid's Dance Revolution on the Wii.

I finally managed to get them dressed and we went back outside to use up the rest of the bubbles. Every time T would set them off he'd tell me they were going to Bubble School - I swear I have no idea how kids come up with this stuff.

She's far more stylish than I'll ever be!

I think being an Aunt is pretty much the best thing ever, I had a blast with them, but I come away wondering how parents do it! I had them less than 24 hours and I was exhausted! They have limitless energy and talk a mile a minutes - and I love them more and more every day.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Last Tuesday my mom called and asked if I could see the smoke. I'd been working and hadn't looked out the window in a while, but when I did I saw clearly what the news had been reporting. A fire had started in the foothills above the town next to mine - and those foothills are directly connected to the hill I live on.

It didn't take long to realize the fire was growing rapidly and I began watching the news and checking all of the usual online sources to see what areas were at risk of evacuation. The Western US is a bit of a tinderbox right now thanks to a hot, dry spring and summer, so all of who live close to mountain or natural areas tend to be a bit on alert at all times.

It didn't take much looking to discover that my neighborhood had been told by the city to prepare our to go bags in case we were evacuated. I still felt we probably we going to be okay since the winds weren't moving in our direction, but it's hard to sit there and watch the fire get bigger, listen to the news reports and not feel as if you should be preparing.

I tracked down my important paperwork and photo albums (and boxes of loose photos and hard drives) and put them in the car just in case. Once that was done I tried to make the waiting less stressful and filled the afternoon and evening with watching the fire and attempting to capture its destructive beauty in photo.

Thanks to some amazing work by some very overworked Firefighters, no homes were lost to this fire, an incredible result given how close it was to so many homes.

When I went to bed, the fire was still 0% contained, so I found myself waking up about once an hour to check to see if the fire had started moving north towards me. The fire at night was a very different thing than in the afternoon when the smoke obscured the flames.

The sunset the next morning was stunningly beautiful, but I almost felt guilty for thinking so.

Thursday we got our first bit of rainfall in more than a month, I've never been so happy for rain. I spent the day with the windows open, despite the slightly smoke smell because I wanted to be able to hear the rain as much as possible.

Monday, July 9, 2012

The SummerEdition of the PinterestChallenge is back and it just so happened to come the day I challenged myself to start cooking again and make a few of those recipes I'd been pinning for months, nothing like a little deadline to make things happen.

My first challenge was the hardest - red and blue tie-dyed fudge (yes, I pulled out the patriotic dessert for Independence Day last week.) I'd never made fudge before so I was a bit worried about how this would turn out. Turns out I was right to worry, my first batch wasn't the prettiest, but by the second go round I had it down! Thankfully I found friends and family to give most of it away too, this isn't the kind of thing I want sitting around the house.

To counter the sugar rush from the fudge, I whipped up a batch of Crispy Edamame. This recipe was good, which since I ate if for four meals in a row was a good thing, next time I know to half the recipe!

The pin I tested the most, was one to make Greek-style yogurt by straining regular yogurt using the coffee filter method I found on this pin. This is a keeper, I eat yogurt for breakfast every day and prefer the thinker, more protein packed strained version to regular yogurt and using coffee filters to strain the yogurt rather than cheese cloth is easier and less costly.

My favorite of the pins I tried was the Smashed Chickpeas & Avocado Salad Sandwich, I'm pretty sure this one will become a regular at my house. My only complaint was how much work it was to take the skins off the chickpeas, next time I'm going to skip that step. I realized after I started making this that I didn't have a lime, so I made it with lemon juice and I used spinach and a sprinkle of coriander, since I didn't have any fresh cilantro in the fridge.

My final cooking attempt was a pin my sister sent me for Sweet and Salty Chickpeas (can you tell I love chickpeas?) This one made a great, low guilt snack.

Can you tell I'm playing with my new iPhone and assorted camera apps? A week's worth of play has me loving Instagram for the social aspects, but my favorite app for taking photos is Camera Awesome. The filters aren't the best I've seen, but I love the feature that allows me to pick one spot in the photo to set the exposure to and the ease with which I can send the photos to Flickr or to my Instagram Feed.

Have you tried any recipes off of Pinterest lately? What are some of your favorites?

This week's cooking was accompanied by the latest Glen Hansard album, here's the beautiful opening track You Will Become.